- A wild experimentation of visual style and a hell of a debut for Sergei Parajanov
- An unbridled aesthetic achievement—he throws the kitchen sink at it so to speak stylistically—it doesn’t all land, and you don’t always feel like you’re watching a cohesive whole even if you’re flabbergasted at what you’re seeing very often throughout the 97 minutes
- Apparently Parajanov was inspired by Ivan’s Childhood from Tarkovsky in 1962—it’s definitely its own ambitious animal stylistically though- not as measured as Tarkovsky—I see hints of Truffaut’s Shoot the Piano Player and Tom Jones in the tone and style
- Ebert “sometimes visual style is bursting with life, sometimes merely overwrought” and I tend to agree—he compares Parajanov to a young Scorsese
- From the outset you know you’re in for a ride—you’re sitting, POV, with the camera on a falling tree
- The editing transitions, flashing to red, are inspired—red chapter titles
- Manipulation of film stock speed often
- Fluid camera—fluid may be wrong—free, unhinged and unhindered—it’s not smooth or graceful—it’s a great match for the tall-tale folklore content
- Dubbing is the only way to do this
- There’s a low-angle shot of a flower up from the dirt to show the idyllic love—very Wellesian—canted angles—uses hills in this way as well

- Wonderful 360 tracking shot in the forest with rain
- The narrative is a series of tragedies and formally marked by putting up crosses—
- Switches to black and white after Ivan’s Marichka’s death—goes from color and vibrant to black and white and depressing- nice touch
- Then we go back to color for this great dissolve editing sequence Christ-montage dream and then back to reality with the black and white. Then back to color again when he meets another woman. Whew!

- Surrealism and sorcery—the new love is the devil and his past love haunts him
- mise-en-scene perfection isn’t forgotten even with all of the camerawork

- A genius slow-motion sequence at a tavern- very inventive with washed out color and the camera tracking

- A great reflection shot seemingly from underwater

- HR/MS– I could see it going higher with a second visit but it’s a lot to take in at first
Good review, i really liked the dissolves, it reminded me a bit of the opening of Apocalypse now, but not on that level.
You said that good camera work is not subjective and I agree, no one would say that Children on Men has mediocre camera movement.
But here? Hmm, what did you think about when they started turning the camera nonstop?
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